Game Description: In CDProjekt RED's sequel to its 2007 RPG, players are once again thrust into a vast and visually stunning medieval world of might, magic and monsters. Sporting a new game engine, a new dialogue system and new combat mechanics, the game promises to deliver an epic and arresting RPG experience.

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Review

Geralt of Rivia returns to slay monsters, woo ladies, and play politics in a dark fantasy world of schemers and sorcerers. Framed for the murder of a king, Geralt must track down the real killer to clear his name and discover who wants the royalty of the Northern Kingdoms dead.

The Pros

Absolutely gorgeous

Well-written, well-acted, adult-oriented storyline

Fluid and totally revamped combat

Major consequences to big decision

The Cons

May be too difficult for casual players

Tutorial could use some beefing up

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Review:

When The Witcher was released for the PC in 2007, it was a bit of a revelation in some ways. Based on a series of books and short stories that was wildly popular in its native land of Poland, but fairly unknown elsewhere, the game told the story of Geralt of Rivia, a monster-slaying badass known as a witcher, and his exploits in the land of Temeria. It developed a loyal following due to the mature storyline, Geralt’s general badassery and sexual exploits, and developer CD Projekt RED STUDIO’s almost fanatical devotion to supporting the playerbase with free updates and bonus material.

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings picks up where the first left off, but is a tremendous revamp in almost every respect. Instead of using a heavily modified version of the Neverwinter Nights engine, it uses the in-house developed RED engine. Instead of relying on auto-attack combat like Knights of the Old Republic, it features real-time action-based combat. CD Projekt RED has brought Geralt’s world to life in spectacular fashion, resulting in one of the most impressive fantasy titles since. . .well, since The Witcher.

Witcher? I barely. . .

Following the events of the first game, Geralt is shacking up with sorceress Triss Merigold, and is stuck helping lay siege to La Valette Castle. The siege culminates in a tremendous assault that sees Geralt and company facing off against hordes of knights, formidable defensive positions, and even a dragon that shows up out of nowhere. Geralt’s successes in battle are short-lived, as he is quickly framed for the actions of the titular assassin of kings and tossed in a dungeon. With a little help, he escapes and sets off to clear his name and find the true kingslayer. This, of course, is much more complicated than it sounds.

The story of The Witcher 2 is labyrinthine, and delves heavily into the politics of the various Northern Kingdoms. The events depicted in the first game have destabilized Temeria, and its neighbors are jockeying for advantageous positions in the changing political landscape. Geralt quickly finds himself caught up in numerous overlapping agendas and plots, and it’s up to the player to navigate the tangled web of intrigue while still accomplishing the witcher’s goals.

Unlike many games that claim your choices have consequences, The Witcher 2 actually makes good on the promise. You can’t keep everyone happy all the time, and at some point Geralt has to make some big decisions that drastically affect the course of the game. It’s fair to say that you’ll only see about two-thirds of the game’s content in a single playthrough due to the branching narrative structure. Luckily the game is only about 40 hours long, so multiple playthroughs are not the huge time commitment they were in the first game.

The “written for adults” approach to the material is refreshing, and it’s an all-too-rare treat to interact with characters who are neither cackling monsters nor squeaky clean saints. Even the “good guys” have glaring flaws and dark sides, and even your most bitter adversaries have reasons for their behavior beyond “the plot needed an antagonist here.” Many of the decisions you’ll make over the course of the game are exceedingly tough, as there is often no obvious “right” answer. They’re judgment calls and ink blot tests, not a question of whether you’d rather strangle a puppy or rescue an orphan.

Steel and silver

Equally tough are the opponents you’ll face, especially early on. Combat is now action-based, and success depends entirely on your twitch gaming skills. This is not a half-assed partial conversion to action combat like Dragon Age 2, this is a full-tilt hack and slash with tactical elements. Think Batman: Arkham Asylum with more stats under the hood and less counterattacking and you’re not far off the mark. It’s a much more appropriate way to control Geralt, and it does take practice. The Witcher 2 is not afraid to kill you in the blink of an eye, especially early on. It’s stingy with autosaving, too, so if you’re not diligent with your quicksave slot, you can easily find yourself redoing an hour of playtime after an unfortunate encounter with a nest of endregas or nekkers.

It’s not unfair, though. Any time you hit a wall in the game’s combat, it’s almost certainly because you’re neglecting an important part of your arsenal. Geralt can cast very useful magic signs to help him in battle, ranging from a simple “force push” to a mind control spell that makes enemies turn on their allies. Of particular use early in the game is Quen, which creates a shield around the witcher that allows you to more easily get the hang of how the combo system works. It’s a godsend against multiple armored opponents. Geralt can also use the extensive crafting system to make traps, bombs and potions to further enhance his offensive and defensive capabilities. This requires meditation, as does actually drinking the potions in question, so the game quickly becomes as much about preparation as it is about execution. It forces the player to think like a hunter, and is really an elegant system.

Once Geralt has racked up some branches on the old skill tree, he becomes much more capable as a fighter. By the end of the game, he’s walking death, and very few opponents can stand up to him. Groups of foes can still pose a threat if you’re sloppy, but for the most part they simply hurl themselves onto your blade. Some may find this late game lack of challenge disappointing, but I found it to be a suitable reward for working my way up the newbie witcher ladder. In peak form, Geralt should be exceptionally dangerous.

The Beauty of Unwashed Streets
The Witcher 2 is a gorgeous game, and one that requires a pretty beefy PC to run at max settings (protip: turn ubersampling off). PC gamers will probably use this game to gauge PC power for some time, or at least until Battlefield 3 comes out. The world is astoundingly detailed, down to the leaves on the trees and embroidery on clothing. Most of the people look like they’re legitimately from the Middle Ages, which is to say they’re not supermodels by any stretch of the imagination. The exceptions tend to be the sorceresses, but since they’re centuries-old magical beings who can apparently control aging and appearance, they probably get a pass.

As stunning as the visuals are, it’s the sound design that sells everything as solid, heavy and real. Booted feet thud on wooden floors, monsters gibber and scream unearthly battle cries, steel scrapes against plate armor. The visuals make you believe in your video card, but the sound is what makes you believe what’s happening in front of you has weight and substance. Play with top quality headphones or speakers to fully appreciate the audio achievement on display here.

The Most Titled Witcher in the World

It’s not often I feel like applauding when the credits roll on a videogame, but this time, I may have put my hands together for the folks at CD Projekt RED Studio. Seemingly out of nowhere, they have produced a game that can easily hang with the multi-million dollar triple-A crowd. The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings is clearly a labor of love, with tremendous thought put into the story, presentation, and writing. If you have a PC capable of running it, do not hesitate to play it. If you don’t…well, this is one of the best arguments in favor of high-end PC gaming to come along in quite some time. You might want to start pricing video cards.

Comments are Closed

Ok Im a pc gamer and I love RPGs but this is ridiculous. The graphics are amazing and the sword combat is pretty good (though he does have a tendency to do a combat roll into the middle of a group of enemies and get his arse kicked in a couple of hits), and I like that they dont shy away from nudity. But after 10-12 hrs of play thats about where the good points end.

When Im expected to sneak around and not be seen by guards the guards just stand there and stare at me and im instantly caught. My character cant jump, cant swim, and cant even fall down a 2" drop to get to some stairs. He can jump down or up at specific points but thats it... oh and he cant do so in combat. The potion system is just completely absurd. I have to meditate to drink a potion and I cant drink them while in combat. This goes against the potion mechanic that has existed since D&D on PAPER. Then there's the controls.

The controls are clunky and awkward at best. During combat you have a special attack, a strong attack and the first mouse button is a standard attack (which includes your character almost automatically doing jumping and rolling attacks which is cool like I said above). But if you want to use your protection spell and you get hit from behind you take 200% damage and it cancels you casting the spell. So you end up dying repeatedly from a basic enemy or 3 because your protection spell wears off if you take damage and you have to run away to be able to cast it without getting hit.

When not in combat the controls are strange. The way you open a door is with the attack key. So instead of doing it the way EVERY OTHER GAME EVER has done it and assigning a USE key... you have to walk up to a door and "attack" it. Then if theres anything near a door, like lets say a torch on the wall, you have a 75% chance of putting the torch out instead of "using" the door. Also there seems to be a quick save key but no quick load key. F5 quick saves but F6-12 do nothing. Strange.

Graphically its an amazing looking game but there's something wrong with the way they lit it. As far as I can tell i cant cast an illumination spell (at least not yet only level 6 or 7) and cant carry a torch into a cave or darkened area... so unless I use the very disruptive cat potion (which grants night vision but turns everything black and white except for people, they turn orange with the ability to see their bloodstream for some reason) which lasts for 5 minutes and if you dont need it for the full 5 min well youre just S.O.L buddy. So I ended up cranking up the brightness and gamma while in a cave and then turning it down when I leave. Otherwise I end up stumbling around in the dark getting killed by enemies I can barely see. I do love how lots of the clothes the characters wear (including necklaces and such) are actual models and some even have physics. The downside to that though is it makes a higher end video card almost a must for the game. One last issue with the graphics though is that when you are talking to people or enter a building you can see the lower resolution version of a texture on the ground or wall for a second or two then it changes to the higher res texture. That could be my video card too but I found it annoying.

The Witcher 2 is simply the best RPG I have played in a very long time. The adult themed story is top notch! It s nice being able to play a game for adults and not 12 year olds! The graphics are jaw dropping imo! It s everything DragonAge 2 should have been and more! The combat is a slight learning curve but you quickly get used to it once you learn it. Some people even use controllers and like that more. Such an underrated game! And like DICE, they made it for the PC first THEN worked on the console version, and that is why we get such gorgeous looking graphics! All games should be like this! I don t have a top notch system, Intel Core2Quad (Q9300) ATI HD5850, 4gigs memory on Win7 64bit. Also they release constant patches and free DLC s with patch 2.0 for more PC improvements! BUY THIS GAME if you love RPG S and want to support a PC developer!

I'm still in the beginning on normal difficulty. (Still in prison) Voice acting is pretty good. Too soon to comment on story....But I don't know How much more I can stand playing...The controls are ....how to put this?....Very....SLOPPY. Yeah...It feels Sloppy. Like an old PS1 game where you run, roll, hit, run, roll hit. Sloppy...maybe the story is worth the lame control scheme? Might just move the difficulty down in order to get through the redundancy of combat.

Half the NPCs cant respond. Half the rooms are empty. It's half-baked. Is pornography your idea of humor and love--you know dwarves f-ing pigs? Then Witcher 2 is for you! This sequel does not compare to the polish and light of Witcher 1.

If you are in here complaining about how much a nice computer costs and how it should be ported to console, but you own an Apple PC, punch yourself in the face. You already spent more than you needed and we wouldn't even be filling this thread with discussion about console versions. The further along "WE" as a society get technologically, the more dumbed down everything has to become. Wii? OS X? Can't remember your hotkeys on the keyboard? Holding Ctrl + Alt + Strafe too complicated? Even Kinect and Move, I'll just lump the consoles all together, exclude none of them. Why do we always have to take a step back after we take two steps forward? Keep up with the race or fall out, but being too poor isn't an excuses anymore.

To clear up some biased, or maybe add confusion, I own all of the consoles, but my Wii was a waste of money and my PS3 is a glorified Blu-Ray player. I'd play my XBox 360 more if I cared, but with games like Witcher 2, what's the point.

Im literally sitting here waiting for the UPS guy to deliver the game to me. I bought the collectors edition because I know its really limited, but even more limited in english. I just started playing the first one, I can't wait to start on the sequel.

Please guys. Support the PC gaming, it does not have to be ridiculously expensive to play games on your PC and you might find that you prefer the mouse and keyboard over joysticks.

PC gaming is the epitome of choice and freedom in video games and if you lose that then not only do you lose direction for the consoles but also a sub-culture in our great community.

The real price of a PC console these days can be just the purchase of a video card, something around 150-200 dollars, why that the price of an aging console. Please keep PC gaming alive and buy the games you play.

The Witcher 2 is the best RPG this year, as skyrim is not out yet and nor do we know the standard, (Bioware, dragonage 2 anyone?)

This is the kind of game I dreamed of playing 30 odd years ago when pong came along. Simply awesome, and sends a message to the gaming devs of the world, it does not take a huge budget, just a love for what you do.

Unfortunately, I have an older system and have to run the game on basically the lowest settings possible. However, In my opinion (even on the basement settings) this is hands down one of the greatest (if not the greatest) games I've EVER had the pleasure of playing.....period! I can't wait to build a new PC just to play this game with it cranked up! Huge thank you to CDProjekt! Keep up the great work. Can't wait for The Witcher 3!

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